Obesity and childhood asthma

Abstract

Asthma is a common chronic disease of the airways characterized by recurrent respiratory symptoms, bronchoreactivity, and airway inflammation. The high toll on quality of life has led to sustained efforts to understand the factors leading to asthma inception and poor disease control. Obesity is another increasingly common pediatric disease, which appears to increase the risk for incident asthma and worsened disease severity. Currently, our understanding of how obesity affects asthma risk and affects its phenotypic characteristics remains incomplete. The current review describes our current understanding of the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and management considerations of obesity-related asthma in children. The epidemiologic relationship between obesity in children and incident asthma remains confusing despite numerous longitudinal cohort studies, and appears to be influenced by early life exposures, patterns of somatic growth and underlying familial risks of allergic disease. Children with comorbid obesity and asthma demonstrate diverse phenotypic characteristics which are still becoming clear. Like any child with asthma, a child with comorbid obesity requires an individualized approach adhering to current best-practice guidelines and an understanding of how obesity and asthma may interact.